


Small Mystery

by VaansAbs



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29147772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaansAbs/pseuds/VaansAbs
Summary: A mysterious thief steals a bunch of party supplies leaving Judai and Asuka puzzled. Asuka originally believes it may be connected to the Seven Stars, but changes her mind. Shou and Hayato go missing and an unlikely thing unravels their so-called mystery.
Relationships: Tenjouin Asuka | Alexis Rhodes/Yuuki Juudai | Jaden Yuki
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Small Mystery

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thanknamine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thanknamine/gifts).



It was just another day at the Duel Academia. The sun was shining; the weather was pleasant, and it was the perfect day for a picnic, which is why Judai could be found outside enjoying a nice lunch made by Tome.

“Mmm!! Tome always makes the most delicious food!”

Judai wasn’t just picnicking. He was staking out. There was talk swirling around the academy that there was a phantom on the island, and it stole a variety of party related items. Anything from banners, to plates and napkins, confetti, balloons, and even food from Tome’s store were stolen. The last place anyone had seen the mysterious, shadowy culprit was near the harbor where Judai was now. There was no way he was going to let this opportunity slip by, and who knows. Maybe this had something to do with the Seven Stars, too.

Hayato and Shou were off doing their own investigative work, much to Shou’s chagrin. He wanted to stay by his honorary big brother’s side, but everyone had split into groups of two (Ryou and Misawa, and Chronos and Manjome) before he could protest. They had all gone their separate ways to do research, and while Judai had been enjoying some peace while keeping an ever-watchful eye on the horizon, Asuka had taken to looking around their surroundings for any clues.

That had been about ten minutes ago.

“Asuka-! I’m sure you would’ve found something by now. Why don’t you sit and take five?”

“How could I possibly ‘take five’ when there’s a thief on the loose? They could’ve been sent by the same person who sent Camula.”

“I doubt it’s got anything to do with the Seven Stars,” He laid down on his back with his hands under his head to support it. “Darkness and Camula didn’t exactly seem like the type of people to enjoy bright, colourful parties.”

Sighing, she returned to where Judai was, lying on the picnic blanket and staring up at the clouds. Against her desire to stay with her brother, Fubuki, she’d left to come help her friends and teacher search for the culprit at the chancellor’s request. She and Judai had found nothing (which is probably why he had eaten the lunch Tome had packed for them) and even though she wanted to keep looking, she stopped.

She took a seat next to Judai and said, “But we don’t know if everyone in the Seven Stars is like that. Duels of Darkness or not, there are all kinds of duelists out there. What would you do if there were someone in the Seven Stars that was the exact opposite of Camula and Darkness?”

“I’d duel them, of course!” He grinned at her.

She, of course, sighed again. “Good grief…” But she couldn’t help but to smile too.

The sun went behind the clouds and their brightly lit spot became overcast. The wind blew through the trees and the breeze from the ocean only made it that much colder. It caused a shiver to run up both of their backs, but it had also caused the invitation that they hadn’t seen before to become unlodged from its hiding place. It danced in the wind and Judai sprang to his feet and immediately raced after it.

“J-Judai!”

The invitation didn't get very far. The breeze wasn't that strong, but that also didn't stop it from getting itself stuck inside of a bush. It swayed with the wind and almost got itself unlodged from where it had gotten stuck, but Judai snatched it without a second thought and jogged back to where Asuka was.

"I got it!"

"I can see that." Brushing herself off, she got up to join him, and continued, "So what does it say? It is an invitation to a party, right?"

But when they opened it, the invitation was empty. Asuka sighed again. They were back to square one. Maybe they should rendezvous with the others.

"Hmm… Maybe the message is written with one of those secret spy ink pens." Turning it this way and that, he hoped to glimpse said ink, but there was nothing.

"Just forget it, Judai. The invitation is empty. Maybe Shou or Ryou have found something by now."

As soon as she said their names, their pagers went off. What timing.

“Big bro!! We found something!”

From what little they could make out, Shou, and Hayato looked to be inside the school.

“Where are you? Are you in a classroom?” It didn’t look familiar to Asuka, and it certainly didn’t look like anything Judai was familiar with either.

“We’re in one of the rental rooms in the library,” Hayato answered. “We found all the missing supplies, but there’s no sign of that person who stole everything.”

“Well, just wait right there. We’ll be there soon. And don’t forget to let the others know.”

They nodded their heads, but before they hung up, they heard a door creaking open on the other end of the line, Hayato saying, “You’re-!”, and then the line went dead.

“How convenient.”

Judai didn’t want to waste any time. He quickly shoved his pager in his pants and tried to take off.

“Judai, wait!” She grabbed his hand. “Just wait. We can’t rush into this. We should prepare ourselves.”

The wind had died down; the sun had come out from behind the clouds, and the chirping of the birds resumed. It really was just like any other day. When Darkness and Camula had challenged them to duels of darkness, the entire surrounding area had changed. No such thing had happened this time. For all they knew, for all anyone knew, this was just a case of petty theft and their thief had an affinity for party supplies. Shou and Hayato had found all the stolen merchandise so they could return it, but that was when Asuka remembered. Hayato had recognized the person, perhaps their thief, that had interrupted their call. It was entirely possible that their thief was someone they knew.

"But we can't just stand around! They could be in danger!"

"I doubt that. Hayato seemed to recognize whoever it was before they disconnected."

"But what if it's not who we think it is! What if it's-"

"Judai, look around! Nothing's out of the ordinary!"

And it was true. Judai came to realize this as he took in their surroundings - the sights, the smells, the sounds that this part of the island that was so close to the ocean brought. The salty sea area was enough to bring him to his senses.

The two of them were still holding hands, and while it made the blood rush to Asuka's face, Judai tried not to think much of it. Especially when he grasped Asuka's hand tightly in his own and took off running.

"Even if they aren't in any danger, we should hurry!"

"R-right!"

\----

It didn’t take that long to get to the school’s library, but it was the opposite for the rental room. There were a lot of them, and almost all of them were occupied. Not even the librarians knew which one Shou and Hayato had gone into. This was getting them nowhere.

“Argh! SHOU! HAYATO! WHERE ARE YOU?!” Judai put his hands over his mouth and screamed.

The patrons of the library turned to look at him with incredulous looks on their faces, and Asuka quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.

“Don’t you know you’re supposed to be quiet in the library?!”

But his rebuffs came back muffled until Asuka removed her hand.

“But we’re never going to find them just by asking around.”

Asuka sighed. “We’ll find them. Besides, if they were in danger at all, I’m sure word would’ve gotten around. No one seems put off by anything - other than your screams.”

“Hey, my screams are beautiful.”

Asuka only rolled her eyes. But they hadn’t found their friends yet. There had to be somewhere they hadn’t thought to look yet. They checked all the reserved rooms and even the empty ones, and they had found nothing. Was it entirely possible that their thief had cleared out the room and taken Hayato and Shou as well? But where would they have gone?

It was at this moment that Judai’s stomach growled, distracting Asuka from her thoughts.

“You just ate! How can you be hungry again?”

“What can I say? I’m a growing boy, Asuka! I need all the nutrition from Tome’s meals as much as possible!”

Their pagers beeped again, signaling another call, but only this time it wasn’t from Shou and Hayato. It was from their thief. They couldn’t see what they looked like. The lights were on and the camera was focused on what was Shou and Hayato. They could only hear their poorly disguised voice.

“If you want to see your friends, you better come to the Osiris Red dorm, nya- I mean, They’re in trouble so you better get here fast.”

“Ah! Big bro! Asuka!!” Shou shouted, but it didn’t sound very convincing.

“Hayato, say something!”

“Oh, uh… Judai! Asuka! Come quick or we’ll be… done in?”

They could hear someone facepalming, and the call ended. That ‘nyaa’ was unmistakable. It was Professor Daitokuji. His obvious cat quirk was recognizable to all at the academy and even more so to his own Osiris Red students.

“No way… Professor Daitokuji is the thief?”

He felt someone’s hand (It was Asuka’s) touch him gently on his arm. “I’m sure he has a good reason, and from the sounds of it, it didn’t seem like Shou and Hayato were being held against their will.”

“Y-yeah…” Right. Right! It sounded more like the three of them were just having a bit of fun rather than anything serious was going on, but it still didn’t change the fact that someone had stolen a bunch of party goodies. “You’re right, Asuka! Anyway, let’s head to the Red dorm! I’m starving, and maybe there will be food!”

\----

When they made it back to the dorm, all the lights were off except in the cafeteria, which was odd. It was beautiful outside so there was no need for the lights to be on, but remembering the call, they both realized that that is where they were supposed to go. Upon entering, the lights went out, and they were temporarily in darkness, but it didn’t last for long as the light from outside was enough to light the room for them to see that everything was set up for a party. Before they could ask questions, the lights came back on and they could hear “Surprise!” Shou and Hayato both popped up from their hiding spaces and Professor Daitokuji, with Pharaoh in his arms, stepped out from behind them.

“Oh… The others aren’t with you.” Hayato said, looking a little downcast.

“Can someone fill us in on what’s going on?” Asuka asked, hands on hips as she took in all the surroundings. They had covered the entire cafeteria head-to-toe in decorations from balloons to banners. Confetti lined the tablecloths, and a large cake was sitting on one table decked out in many candles. Surely it was its own kind of fire hazard.

“And why did you steal all this stuff, professor?”

“Oh, I didn’t steal it. I asked the chancellor if I could throw a party for everyone. You’ve all worked so hard against the Seven Stars so far. I thought a party would be a pleasant break for everyone.”

“Wait. You asked the chancellor?”

Daitokuji nodded. “He said he didn’t see why we couldn’t have a party though when the other students caught me wheeling all of this from Tome’s store in the dead of night, I guess they made up their own story. But it’s okay. There’s nothing like a little mystery to liven up the place, hmm?”

Pharaoh meowed.

“I can’t believe we were led around by a phony story…” Asuka plopped down at one table in disbelief. Even though the mystery wasn’t that interesting, it was exhilarating to look for clues and not have to worry about duels of darkness for a bit. Maybe some of Judai’s carefree spirit was rubbing off on her.

Judai also sat down at the same table as Asuka and dug into whatever food he could find. “Mmm!! You sure picked out some good food, professor!”

“H-hey! Leave some for the others!”

The professor, Shou, and Hayato tried to stop Judai from eating all the food, but while they did that, the others came racing in, with duel disks equipped, ready to save Shou and Hayato. A valiant effort, but when coming to the reality of the situation at hand, not needed.

Eventually everyone settled down and enjoyed their moment of respite. There was a lot of chatter and laughter, but it brought smiles to everyone’s faces, even if some of them wouldn’t admit it.

Asuka had gone outside for some air, but truthfully, she was thinking of her brother, Fubuki, wondering if he would’ve liked to enjoy this moment, too. She didn’t know the truth of what had happened to him, and even though she knew it would come eventually, it still wounded her to know he had suffered for who knows how long without her by his side.

While she was thinking of her brother, Judai tiptoed behind her and covered her eyes with her hands.

“H-hey! Who’s there!?”

“Gotcha! It’s just me, Asuka! What’re you doing out here by yourself?”

He lowered his hands from her eyes and stood next to Asuka. The sun was setting and the rays of reds, oranges, and purples against the deep blue of the ocean made everything look like a magnificent painting. They had started their day with the sun and now they were ending it with the sun, too.

“I was just thinking about my brother. I think he would’ve enjoyed today.”

“Fubuki?” Judai didn’t really know much of anything about Asuka’s older brother, only that he had gone missing along with other third-year students in a mysterious dorm built for the honor students prior to his arrival at the academy. Unlike Asuka, he didn’t have any siblings, so he didn’t understand just what kind of pain she was going through, but he thought of his parents, of any of his friends, or even Winged Kuriboh then he could understand - just a little. “I’m sure he would’ve enjoyed it, but I think he’d feel even better knowing you enjoyed yourself, Asuka.”

“I suppose… Hey, Judai.”

“Hmm?”

The wind picked back up again, blowing Asuka’s hair into her face. She wanted to tell him she enjoyed being with him today even if it was for a silly mystery, but the words wouldn’t come to her and they ended up escaping with the wind. Once the wind had died down, and Asuka had tied back her hair, she just said, “It’s nothing.” but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

Judai wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, but if she was happy then so was he.

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for @thanknamine. I’ve been working on this piece since I started season one (I’m long since done watching GX now) but finally managed to finish it. It’s just a short, simple juice piece. I’ve never written anything for YuGiOh before so I apologize if it’s pretty rough. I may write more juice in the future, but now I hope you enjoy!


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